The Dark Side Of Fate

Ecos

The arrest went smoothly. It would have been easy if it weren't for the informant that might have tipped them off. I had an idea of how it might have happened, but we needed to question the suspects to conclude.

Ramsey was despicable. He kept yelling he would not speak until he was brought before the council. If only the arsehole knew what we had in mind for him.

With the present hierarchy, he was right. The lord would have to take him to the council to question him before passing judgement, but Sylvester would be king soon and then have the power to do as he wills with the prisoners.

It was a lot of power to bestow on one person, but I trusted Tamia's judgement of character and decided I would support the cause.

We parked at the estate and walked in.

Devin was excited; I am sure he had not had so much excitement in a while. For someone that likes to fight a lot, this was thrilling for him.

As for me, I felt nothing.

My life would still be fucked up after this. One thing was sure, no matter what Tamia said, I would let Amanda go. If the children were mine, I would find a way to be in their lives.

Thinking of all the damage she caused broke my heart completely. Although we couldn't link her to anything, and the song the suspects were singing made her seem innocent, I still did not want her. There was just something off about her behaviour that did not sit well with me.

The only reason I wasn't going to push was because of her condition. If we could not prove that she was actively and deliberately working with these people, then she was a free woman. One thing I was certain about is she would never be the head Luna of the East or my mate. I was willing to move on from Tamia, but I wasn't willing to move on with Amanda.

We arrived in the early hours of the morning, tired from the arrest and headed to our room. I did not know what would happen the next day, but I knew it would be fast-paced henceforth.

We also had to wait for the council to summon Sylvester for an impromptu meeting so we could move and install him as king.

Christain was with us, so we were complete.

Everyone that had a say in making Sylvester king was with us; the only pushback we might have was from Vino Lawrence, who might see it as a slight, but as far as I was concerned, the guy should be happy that he remains on the council. His family aren't truly northern. They originated from the west, and his aunt had a big hand in this mutiny.

He should be happy if we leave him on the council. It was a shame that Gezel and Carla were involved. If not, I would have pleaded with Sylvester not to abolish the law that holds every family member accountable for the crimes of a member. It would have been nice to have the bastard resign because of Jenny and Neil's conduct. I knew it would also affect the Babanins, but the Lawrences, through Jenny, had stylishly taken over that seat so far. It was all a colossal mess.

I went straight to my room, and sleep came quickly.

I woke up late. It was expected since we arrived at the estate in the morning, and we were tired when we arrived.

I looked out the window and saw the sun was up in the sky, which meant it was afternoon. I freshened up in a hurry and left the room.

Entering Volkov's lounge, I noticed everyone was there. Sylvester, Marcel, Theodore, Devin, Christian, Jake, Dominic, Kyle and Maxwell. I was the last to join them, and Sylvester smiled at me. "Must have slept well," he said, and I nodded.

"Like a baby," I lied, and Black grumbled in my head

"We found out that Mikhailovs were the ones that warned the others of the arrest,” Devin said, just as I had suspected, and I was relieved that there was no traitor in our midst. It would have been another headache to deal with.

I sat and picked up a sandwich from the table. There was a list in Sylvester's hands, and I wondered what it was.

"What's that?" I asked him, and he handed it to me.

"Eighty- three names of their members that we got from your mate's drive," He said, and I knew he meant that mate thing as a jab since everyone knew how it offended me. I had to let it go because I deserved it. I had thrown away a gem for that shit, and Sylvester now had my gem. He wasn't letting her go.

"I do not trust her information,” I said, glancing through the document. None of them seemed surprised, and I was glad we were on the same page.

"Well, we still can't link her to the events, and everyone is singing the same song where she is concerned. They claimed she fed her father lies, and he put a target on her," Sylvester said, and I shook my head.

"You all do not know Amanda like I do. She had all the opportunity to come clean to me but held it," I said, and Devin shook his head.

"You were not easy to be with, Leo. I saw you in the east. You did not seem approachable. She might have been scared of your reaction and chose to handle it the best way she could," he said, making a valid point, but something did not sit well with me about her still. I felt it was odd.

"I am just uncomfortable letting her off the hook," I said, and Theodore sighed.

"Well, the north has to let her go. We can't hold her here. She has fulfilled all obligations. She has confessed and cooperated. According to our laws, she is free. It would have been a different case if we could link her to these people as actively among them. We have to let her go today, Leo," he said, and I looked at him in shock, then looked at Sylvester, who nodded.

"We do not want anything to work against installing me as king. Holding a pregnant Luna prisoner after she has confessed and cooperated might be seen as tyranny, and that could make the council try to push back longer than we can afford. Of course, they won't win, but it would unnecessarily prolong the situation. We need to strike once and hit hard. So I will advise you to figure out what you want to do with your mate today so we can move on to more pressing matters, like figuring out who this king is. Sixty per cent of the people on this list are from your territory, Leo. You still have a lot of work to do to keep your place clean.” Sylvester said, and I was a bit angry. I did not want Amanda to go scot-free for all she did to me.

"I know you have scores to settle with your mate, but it is between you two now. I cannot be involved." Sylvester added gently, knowing exactly how I was feeling, and I decided to do the right thing.

"I will deal with it now, but please, I want to be a part of the questioning,” I told them. They laughed. "We won't question anyone until Sylvester is king. They all demand to be brought before the council before they speak, so we can't question them. There is a possibility they would go free if we allow it. It will be a shocker when Sylvester is made king, and they have to answer to him,” Theodore said. Stalling their questioning with the council is the fastest way to make Sylvester king, and we all knew it. The council will send Sylvester a summon, which he is meant to ignore. Then the four leaders would be asked to come to the council and vote that Sylvester steps down for blatantly refusing to see the council and violating rights.

During the voting session, we would push forth our agenda and demand he be made king because the current situation is not helping us. For whatever reason we choose to come up with, however stupid it may be, we would just unanimously agree that we want a king and not a lord anymore. After a long debate between the council members and us, the top families would be asked to choose sides. We knew what the top families would decide, championing our proposal.

After the top families side with us, the council would have to back down. This process might take a day or two, pending when the council chooses to act between summoning Sylvester and us.

I knew dealing with Amanda's issue was essential so we could focus on the problem at hand. She was more of a distraction and liability.

I excused myself to go deal with my problem.

I moved through the hallway, and when I got to the room that Amanda was being held in, a Kappa came to open the door for me. I walked in, and she was sitting in the chair reading a book. She looked at me, and there was fear in her eyes.

"Leo," she said, and Black growled at her.

"It is alpha to you!" I said, and she averted her gaze.

"I guess you have not forgiven me yet," She said, putting down the book and standing up.

"I can never forgive what you did to me," I said, and she shook her head.

"I did not do anything to you. We are both guilty. You could have rejected me but refused to do it, so do not put this on me. Do you think I wanted this life? Do you think I wanted to play second fiddle to Tamia? I didn't, Leo, but you put me in that situation. You put my wolf and me in that situation, so don't blame me for this. Tamia has the right to be angry but not you. I did everything I could to fit in her shoes. I loved you the best way I could, but I was never enough,” She said, tears streaming down her face, but I was numb to them.

"You could have come clean about what your father was doing, what he was making you do," I said to her, and she shook her head.

"Would you have listened? You rarely spend time with me, and when you are around, you are buried in work. I was alone, so I had to figure it out alone.” she said, and I nodded.

"I do not trust you, Amanda, and I do not want to waste any more of my precious time with you. Sylvester says he can't hold you, but I still believe you have a hand in all this. Because if you can sleep with me, and hide this magnitude of information from me, then you can as well kill me in my sleep the moment I stop being useful," I said. She looked hurt, but I did not feel a thing.

"You can say all you like but do not belittle my love, Leo. I love you, and you know it, so don't say things like that,” she said, crying, and I exhaled.

"I will let you go, but you can't be my Luna. I do not even want you in the east. You can go home and pack your things. When you settle, let me know where you are. I will find a way to be in my children’s lives after they have been tested. But our relationship is over Amanda,” I said, and she looked at me angrily.

"Very well, I do not need you to take care of my children,” she said, and I did not know if she wanted me to plead with her or not. I did not care.

"Suit yourself. However you want, it is fine by me," I said, and she nodded.

"1 will let them know the kind of man their father is," she said as a threat, and I nodded.

"While you are it, tell them how you got into my life and ruined it. Tell them how you helped your father almost destroy me. There might be no evidence linking you directly to this shit, but I don't trust you. I promise you that if I find out you had a hand in all this, I will hunt you down and destroy you," I said; she stepped back.

"I, Leonardo Albert, reject you, Amanda Richford as my mate. May your days be full of the anguish and pain you brought me," I said, finally speaking the words I should have said on the balcony that day, a little too late.

She stepped back, anticipating pain, but it never came. I looked at her and frowned.

"Accept!" I yelled at the stubborn woman, and her tears began to fall freely as she shook her head, refusing to accept the rejection: hoping I would take it back, but my mind was made up. I was done. "Accept!" I yelled.

I needed her to accept because she was an Alpha breed. Getting impatient, I advanced towards her, and she accepted before I could reach her, but the pain did not come.

I felt a disconnection and emptiness but no pain.

With Tamia, there was pain. Did it have something to do with the blue moon?

Finding a fated was hard, let alone rejecting them, but Sylvester had felt pain when he rejected Susan even though he masked it. I knew it, which was why Tamia took him out of the ball, but I felt nothing with Amanda.

"May I see Annika before I leave?” She asked, wiping away her tears.

"My father misled her, and I felt I should have saved her. I would like to see her before I leave,” She said in tears, and I nodded.

"I will tell Tamia to permit you,” I said and turned my back. I was a free man, and even though I felt empty, I knew I would start on a clean slate.